Here’s what I would like to share about starting solids. I started feeding my daughter solid food when she was 5 months old. I started with rice cereal, then I introduced orange vegetables, then green, and last fruit. This was based on the recommendation of my daughter’s pediatrician, different pediatricians have different recommendations; for instance, some may recommend starting with green veggies first. I suggest discussing any concerns and questions about introducing solids with your pediatrician and going with your gut feeling. The place I recommend (online) for good solid food feeding tips is http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/ I like the way the site is organized. As far as making your own baby food, I would recommend the book Super Baby Food.

My daughter now eats most things, still mainly in puree form. However, she can also eat chunks (like in many third stage foods) she also eats Gerber Puffs and Gerber Yogurt Melts, which she loves. We gave her Kraft cheese slices last week; I tore very small pieces of cheese and placed it on her high chair tray for her to pick up and eat on her own. She seemed to enjoy them. I am going to get her Cheerios today. (BTW if you live in Los Angeles, Pavillions/Vons have a special on Cheerios, I think until tomorrow; 2 boxes for $2.) Back to my daughter, she has now had most veggies and most fruit, chicken, meat, as well as fish; she had salmon for the first time on Satuday. I have not given her strawberries or raspberries, egg whites, and certain other foods associated with allergies; the site above, as well as your pediatrician (and of course any of your own research) are good resources as far as what foods not to introduce until age 1. (Whole milk is a definite no, until age 1.)

So, here I go. I hope people will read this, I think blogging is a great way to connect with other people who are going through the same life experiences as you are. Let me introduce myself, I am a mamma to a 9 month old daugther; she is the sunshine of my life.

I wanted to share with other mammas out there certain things that I have learned in the 9 months since I became a mother, in the hopes that you can do some things a little quicker than I did; or have a reference that I didn’t have. I know that there are many mommy blogs out there, in fact if you are reading this and you write your own mommy blog; tell us about it and feel free to tell me what you think of my approach. I would love for this to be a place where other mommies, or mommies-to-be get advice about all the issues they are faced with, or will be faced with.

Since this is my first post, it’s going to be a bit long; I think I’d like to keep future posts a bit shorter.

Here are few tips , I think these will be good for mommies-to-be, to give you an early start, or even for some mommies with very young babies; I think I was clued in to the below when my daughter was already 4 months old. I strongly urge all the mommies who haven’t to register the following:

Once you register with theses sites you will start receiving a lot of helpful information along with valuable money saving coupons. For example, Pampers is currently running a program called Gifts to Grow, where you enter codes from Pampers products you have purchased in order to obtain points to get gifts. (I wish I knew this from the time my baby was born, I didn’t enroll until she was maybe 5 months old; I missed out on a whole lot of points, as she went through at least 5, if not more, value boxes of diapers.)

Gerber online http://www.gerber.com/ : this is a great one because they not only send you money saving coupons, but they also send you booklets that give you age appropriate tips for feeding, playing with, and taking care of your little one. I found that these booklets came in very handy when my daughter started eating solid foods.

Enfamil online http://www.enfamil.com/ : they provide coupons for formula, and free canisters of formula (if you are going to formula feed, however I suggest that you have some formula on hand even if you plan to breastfeed; because for me breastfeeding was a challenge in the beginning and I was lucky to have formula on hand for my daughter for the first few days. Many mommies supplement breastfeeding with formula. Just a thought.)

It’s also probably never to early to start thinking about solid foods, I never did until right at the time when I started to introduce solids. For that you should register with Beechnut http://www.beechnut.com/ and Earth’s Best http://www.earthsbest.com/ you will get money saving coupons from both. Aside from registering with Earth’s Best online, it is a good idea to call them (800) 434-4246 and ask for a coupon packet; they will send you this by mail; it is full of coupons for many of their products. Beechnut actually sends you helpful milestone newsletters by email as well (you must subscribe to their newsletter; these newsletters also contain coupons). The money you save with these coupons is a great help, because you will go through a lot of baby food! You may of course decide to make your own food for baby. I wanted to do this, but only do it on ocassion; it’s not as easy as I thought it would be. I will share my thoughts on good places both on and offline to get developmentally appropriate solid food making tips.

I think this is all for my first post. I hope some of this has been helpful to some mommy out there, I realize that a lot of you may already have all of this information, and I thank you for reading this anyway. Please leave your comments, that way I know someone is reading this!

Alexia

Alexia is the editor of the website she launched in February of 2010, Los Angeles Mamma Blog. She collaborates with brands as an ambassador, merchandising looks, creating content for online channels and reviewing products. Her ever growing site is a hub of personal style and musings on beauty products, inspiring her readers to make the most of their lifestyle. Alexia is based in Los Angeles but enjoys working relationships with brands and businesses throughout the country and internationally. To learn more about working with Alexia, you can email her at: info[at]losangelesmammablog[dot]com.
Alexia newly founded HandPicked Box a monthly beauty subscription box and she is thrilled to be able to share her beauty finds with her subscribers. To find out more about the box browse the blog or email handpickedbeautybox[at]gmail[dot]com.